


Field Day

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Fictober 2019, Het, Mutual Stubbornness, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 11:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21243485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: “How did you know I was here?”“You go to the gun range when you’re frustrated. Freud would have a field day with you.”





	Field Day

**Author's Note:**

> For fictober day 22 “we could have a chance”

“We need to talk.” 

The door of the firing range had barely closed behind Cho when he heard Michelle’s voice behind him. When he turned his head, he saw her standing a little way away, like she’d been waiting for him to come out. 

Which of course, he realised, she had. 

He should have stopped, talked to her. 

He kept going, only stopping when she stood in front of him, blocking his path. 

“We need to talk,” she said again. 

Cho crossed his arms over his chest. “How did you know I’d be here?” 

“You go to the firing range when you’re frustrated. Freud would have a field day with you.” 

He looked down but he didn’t deny it. He couldn’t. “You shouldn’t have come here,” he said instead, making to go past her but she grabbed his arm, held on tight. For such a slight woman, she was surprisingly strong but even so, Cho threw her grip off easily. He did, however, stop moving, just stood in front of her, as if waiting for her to speak. It took the wind out of her sails for a moment, but she recovered quickly, like she always did. “You kissed me.” 

It was stating the obvious and Cho replied in kind. “Yes.” 

“And then ran away.”

“Walked away. There was no running.” 

She actually huffed at that, crossing her arms over her chest and gritting her teeth. “That’s semantics and you know it.” This close to her, he could see that her knuckles were white, her fingernails digging into her arms as if to control herself. “You kissed me.” 

Her voice was more gentle that time and, against his will, he felt himself start to soften. The doe eyes she was turning in his direction probably didn’t help his cause either. “Yes,” he admitted. “I kissed you.” 

“Why?” He narrowed his eyes, sure there was a trick to the question, just not sure of what it was. The thought that Vega hadn’t just been taking notes from him, that maybe she’d picked up a thing or two from Patrick Jane floated uncomfortably through his mind and he fought back a shudder. Vega’s smarts with Jane’s skills? The prospect was _terrifying_. 

Another huff brought him back to the present. “I mean, did you kiss me because I almost got shot? Again? Or did you kiss me because you wanted to?” 

“Does it matter?” 

But it did and they both knew it. 

“Both,” he eventually admitted and it was like the wind had been taken out of her sails. Her lips parted slightly - and Cho did not think about what they would feel like against his, not much anyway - and her hands fell to her side as her shoulders slumped. “But mostly because I wanted to.” 

He hadn’t planned to say that, hadn’t planned to admit that to her or to anyone, maybe even not to himself. And because she knew him so well - too well - she managed to work that out. “This is where you give me some bullshit noble decision about how this is for my own good?” He didn’t answer in words, just set his jaw and jerked it downwards. If the way she shook her head whilst rolling her eyes was any indication, she didn’t like that. “You don’t get to do that, Cho. I told you before, you are not responsible for me. It’s my life, I get to say what I do and who I do I with. I almost died this year and-”

“You think I don’t know that?” His voice was loud, echoing through the silent car park and it made her jump. He would have felt guilty if he wasn’t suddenly so angry. “I was there, remember? I was the one who held you in my arms as we waited for the ambulance to get there. I was the one who watched as you coded on the diner floor and they barely got you back. Who rode with you in the ambulance, who did suspect interviews covered in your blood because I didn’t want to waste time changing clothes when I could be chasing down the bastards who did that to you. Don’t you think for a minute that I don’t know what happened to you, because I can’t forget.” 

His breath was coming fast, heart hammering in his chest. Michelle stared at him, her eyes wide, her face pale. Cho rubbed a hand over his face, looked up and away from her. Maybe it would be easier if he wasn’t looking at her face when he broke her heart. 

It wasn’t. 

“I almost lost you,” he heard himself say. “And if we started something... it’s too complicated. Too much could go wrong.” 

There was a long beat of silence. 

“You know, for a man who got so annoyed at me for lying to you, you sure don’t seem to mind lying to yourself.” In all the time that Cho had known her, he’d never heard Michelle pour so much scorn into one sentence. It was actually kind of impressive. “So what if it’s complicated? So what if things could go wrong? What if they don’t, what if they go right?” Her hand closed over his arm and he realised that she was standing right in front of him. Slowly, he lifted his head to meet her eyes. The hope he saw there reminded him once again just how young she was - how, after all she’d been through, could she still think like that? “Kimball, we could be good together. We could have a chance... you know we could.” 

Since he’d kissed her hours before and could still feel the jolt of the impact all the way to his toes, he was inclined to agree with her. 

But it wasn’t that simple. 

“The job,” he pointed out. “You’re just starting out... you really want to be the girl who screwed her boss?” 

A slap echoed across the empty parking lot and he inhaled sharply but stood his ground. He’d deserved that, and he knew it. He’d said it on purpose, to shock her, offend her, have her storming away from him. 

But Michelle stood her ground too. 

“Stop trying to get me to walk away.” Her voice was strong, determined. “This is my life. I get to choose what I want and who I want. And I choose you.” Her palms were warm on his chest through the material of his t-shirt. “I know you want to choose me too.” 

This close, with her body pressing close to his, he couldn’t deny it. Any resistance left him in a long exhale and he dropped his head, letting his forehead come to rest against hers. “I’m a bad bet for a relationship, Michelle,” he admitted quietly, images of Elyse and Summer, bruised and bloody, dancing through his mind. He lifted a hand to her cheek, surprised to find her smiling. 

“Because you’re quiet and stubborn and you won’t admit when you’re wrong and you refuse to talk about your feelings?” It was a pretty succinct summary, actually, and he shrugged in acknowledgment. Her answering giggle was like music. “Guess I’ll have to mentor you for a change.” 

His hands were on her hips and he had no clear memory of putting them there. “Are you always this stubborn?” he asked, already knowing the answer. 

Michelle smiled. “I’m an FBI agent,” she reminded him. “And we always get our man.” 

Her smile was the sweetest thing he’d ever seen.

But her kiss was even sweeter.


End file.
